Monza Quali somewhat live-blog

Today I’ll be doing the qualifying live blog for Monza as Robbie (who we know and love as f1ronspeak, the founder & owner) had go take some tests today. (ACT or something) The TV is set to SPEED, I have a cup of Joe (hey, it’s only 4:50 here on the left coast) and I’m all ready to go. 🙂

Pre-Quali Notes:

Rain is in the forecast, as it will be all weekend. Things will surely get interesting.

Kimi Raikkonen was quoted this week, saying that “We’ll give it all to win, for the team and to the fans”. After another bad result last weekend at Spa. Ferrari needs to get a good result in front of the home fans after that whipping McLaren put on them here last year.

With that, SPEED’s opening sequence for their F1 coverage starts…

Q1:

20:00 – Showing highlights of the Hamilton/Raikkonen battle last weekend. Bobby Varsha is recapping the post race events for those of us living under rocks.

20:00 – Rain!! Even though it’s a sprinkle right now the track is still soaked from the rain overnight and in the morning practice. A wet Monza is an exciting Monza!

20:00 – Interview with Sebastien Bourdais on how to take the kebrs at Monza. Isn’t SeaBass still a rookie? Even though he’s won the last 4 champ car titles and has never raced at Monza before. Interesting

20:00 – What the hell is a “mutter” or a “mudda”? And it wasn’t used in a ghetto fashion like “muddaf**ka” either.

20:00 – Commercials, Q1 should begin after the break…

20:00 – It’s green! Quite a few takers including both Force India Cars, Trulli, both BMW’s, and Massa. Kovalainen joins the fun as we’re on board with Massa as he nearly runs up the ass end of one of the STR cars.

17:52 – One of the BMW’s spin, it looks to be Heidfeld

17:15 – All cars are on track, isn’t this Q1?

16:45 – On board with Raikkonen battling with a HONDA and LOSING!

15:25 – By the way, for whatever reason my TV decides to hid the fastest driver and the timer all the way at the top of the screen, I’m using the timer on my cell phone to get somewhat close with the reamining time in each session.

14:41 – Stevie Matchett rants about how crashing the car will end your qualifying session.

13:38 – Raikkonen is 20th?!?!?!?!?

13:14 – Glock is fastest, Trulli not far behind in 3rd, maybe some of Toyota’s NASCAR success is starting to transfer to their F1 program.

12:15 – Raikkonen moves to 9th, the Iceman had me worried for a minute or so.

9:35 – Back to live coverage, on board with the man of the hour (or week), Lewis Hamilton.

7:55 – Replay of the Hamster going over the kerbs. Hopefully the FIA doesn’t give him another 25 second penalty.

4:45 – Most of the field coming in for a new set of wet tires. Do I see Reanault mechanics in the background pushing Piquet’s car into the garage?

2:55 – A noticeable dry line is starting to form around the track, but it’s still too wet for inters, all cars on track.

0:00 – Checkers are out, back markers are scrambling to get into Q2, Coulthard is in, Alonso bumps his teammate Piquet, Giancarlo moves to 12th, Rubens is out. Replay of Nakajima cutting the chicane, hopefully Kazoo doesn’t get a 25 second penalty (not that it mattters, he too is eliminated).

0:00 – With that, Q1 is over, results below…

Standings after Q1:

Kovalainen

Hamilton

Vettel

Rosberg

Massa

Bourdais

Kubica

Heidfeld

Glock

Trulli

Raikkonen

Webber

Fisichella

Alonso

Coulthard

Barrichello

Piquet Jr.

Nakajima

Button

Sutil

drivers eliminated

Q2:

15:00 – It’s green!!

13:20 – Hobbs quoting Alonso, who said that somebody, maybe him would run on inters in Q2.

12:25 – Kubica sliding, his new name is supposedly Roberto. (courtesty of Polish TV reporters)

11:15 – McLaren mechanics have a set of inters ready in the pits, looks like Alonso has a career in future telling if the racing deal doesn’t work out.

10:55 – Kovalainen fastest again.

10:06 – Seabass to 3rd, but his future with STR is still uncertain.

9:32 – Rosberg to P3.

9:21 – Raikkonen goes wiiiiiiiddddeeeee, much like he did in Spa.

8:54 – Hamilton reportedly made a 1 lap run on inters, but he immediately came back in for wets. So much for Alonso’s prediction.

8:45 – Commercials…

8:41 – 14 of the 15 cars on track, Webber is in the pits, just because he’s a member of the GPDA doesn’t mean he can skip Q2!

0:00 – Radio transmission between a calm STR mechanic and an elated Sebastian Vettel. Vettel becomes youngest pole winner at 21 years and 73 days of age.

Final Qualifying Standings:

Vettel

Kovalainen

Webber

Bourdais

Rosberg

Massa

Trulli

Alonso

Glock

Heidfeld

Kubica

Fisichella

Coulthard

Raikkonen

Hamilton

Barrichello

Piquet Jr.

Nakajima

Button

Sutil

Post Quali Interviews:

Vettel 1 – He’s still in disbelief, he told us how he was joking when he told his engineers that if it was going to be wet, he would go for pole. He said there was alot of water, he was aquaplaning and nearly lost the car on numerous occasions. He didn’t feel very comfortable in the wet practice on Friday, the team made a bunch of changes on the car overnight. He also said it was difficult running with all the traffic, especially in Q1, but applauded all the driver for giving each other room and making it safe. He did the best he could, more or less in Q2.

Kovalainen – He said he was pretty close with Vetetl, the 1st lap wasn’t as good. He thinks he’s in a good position for the race, which he said would be good and competitive. He didn’t quite know what went wrong with Hamilton and the intermediate tires.

Webber – Congratulated STR & Vettel with a look of dissappointment on his face. He said his last lap in Q3 in the wet was his best, he wanted to get through both chicanes and Ascari perfectly because of all the standing water.

Vettel 2 – He’s still speechless, it’ll take time for it to sink in for him. Keeps mentioning how fantastic and incredible the moment is.

Th-th-th-That’s all folks! For qualifying at least, check back tomorrow for a live blog of the Santander Italian Grand Prix at Monza!

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